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One of my favourite dessert choices when we go out for dinner is Italian Lemon Tart, the bright lemon filling with the crisp pastry base. Sweet vs tart, Perfection! These cookies are inspired by just this. The filling for the cookies is the same lemon filling used in lemon tarts, paired with the sweet lemon cookies, it works so well!

Lemon Cookie Sandwich Recipe (makes 12 Cookie Sandwiches)

115g softened butter

200g caster sugar

1 egg

Zest of 1 lemon (keep the lemon for the filling)

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarb

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line 2 baking trays.

Sift the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt and stir with a whisk to evenly distribute.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale.

Add the egg and combine, add the vanilla extract and lemon zest and mix. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all is mixed well.

Add the flour mixture and combine.

Place mixture into the fridge for 1 hour to make it easier to roll into balls.

To ensure you have equal sized cookies to match up at the end I weighed my dough at 24g per ball.

Place 6 per tray and gently flatten a little with your fingers.

Bake for 8-10 minutes while you weigh & roll the next batch of cookies. Continue until you have made 24 cookies.

Allow cookies to cool on the tray before removing as they will still be soft.

In the meanwhile make the lemon filling.

Lemon cream filling

235g sugar

2 eggs

135g butter

50ml lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

Place all ingredients into a small pot.

On a medium heat whisk continuously until the butter is all melted and all the ingredients are combined.

Turn the heat up to high and boil for 4 mins whisking all the time.

Take the mixture off the heat and as it cools it will become thicker. It will not become solid.

While it is cooling make your buttercream.

Vanilla buttercream filling

100g butter softened

200g icing sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter for 2 mins until paler in colour.

Sift icing sugar into butter and beat for 6 mins.

Add vanilla extract and beat for 2 mins.

Choose a piping tip and fill a piping bag with the icing. Pipe an icing ring onto the cookies leaving a space in the middle for the lemon.

Spoon or pipe the lemon filling into the cookies and place another cookie on top.

I hope you give this recipe a try. The sweet lemon cookie with the tart lemon filling is perfect!

We are truly in the grips of winter already and this is a wonderful time of year for baking! Spicey gingerbread cookies filling the house with an amazing smell, juicy fruit cake with a cup of tea & for me peppermint candy canes too.

I will baking all these goodies in the lead up to Christmas so keep your eyes peeled for fabulous festive treats. Today though, I have Cinnamon Apply Sandwich Cookies for you.

Cinnamon Apple Sandwich Cookies

115g melted butter

200g soft brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2tsp ground ginger

1/4tso all spice

1/2 tsp bicarbonate

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Sift flour, spices , bicarb, baking powder & salt and mix well.

Melt butter in a microwave safe container.

Put brown sugar & egg into a mixing bowl & mix until pale.

Add all the melted butter and a little flour at a time while mixing in a low speed.

Once all combined cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 160 C. Line baking trays with parchment paper.

Roll cookie dough into balls. To ensure that you get equal sized cookies to match up I recommend that you weigh each ball. I weighed mine to 28g each.

Place 6 round balls onto a lined baking tray and flatten a little with your fingers while still keeping them round. They will spread, don’t try to squeeze more on at a time.

Bake for 8-10 minutes while you weigh & roll the next batch of cookies.

Allow cookies to cool on the tray before removing as they will still be soft.

Filling

For the apple filling

1apple

1tsp cinnamon

2 TBS brown sugar

Wash and then peel an apple. Chop the apple into about 1cm sized pieces. Add cinnamon and sugar and mix well.

Place on a low heat for about 39 mins until the apple pieces have broken down and the mixture is thick. Leave to cool until ready to fill the cookies.

Buttercream filing

100g softened butter

200g icing sugar

2TBS caramel

Beat the butter for 2 mins until paler in colour.

Sift icing sugar into butter and beat for 6 mins.

Add caramel and mix for another 2 mins.

Choose a piping tip and fill a piping bag with the icing. Pipe a circle of icing onto the cookies. Fill the middle of the Cookie with cooked apple.

Sandwich the cookies and enjoy. These cookies will only be good for 2 days due to the moisture of the filling, they are best assembled shortly before being eaten.

If you give this recipe a try please post a pic & tag #sprinklesinthewild, it would also be great if you followed us in Instagram or Facebook.

I love a good challenge, not from someone else but I like to challenge myself! I also love kawaii things. I’ve seen many teddy bear head macarons but I really wanted to make a whole teddy. So I played around and tried a couple chocolate macaron recipes and drew my own teddy macaron template and you know what, I’m really pleased with how they turned out!

I couldn’t decide between arms on the side or arms on top so I ended up doing a few of each. I piped two batches of macarons and strangely the first batch came out best. It is essential that the base shape has formed a skin, ready to go into the oven, before you add the tails to the backs and the arms to the front, otherwise it does not keep its shape & will just be absorbed by the base shape.

Chocolate Macaron Recipe

50g egg whites (aged 24 hours)

pinch of salt

45g caster sugar

65g ground almonds

60g icing sugar

5g cocoa powder

Remove the ages egg whites from the fridge.

Sieve the ground almonds ensuring you get 65g of almonds through the sieve. Keep the larger bits for another project. Next sieve the icing sugar & cocoa. Mix it together until evenly distributed.

Ensure the bowl you are going to whip your eggs in is very clean. Wipe it out with lemon juice & some paper towel.

Usuing a handheld beater whip the eggs. When they start getting foamy add a pinch of salt. Continue to whip until you can see trails in the bowl, gradually add the caster sugar. Continue to whip until stiff peaks form. No colours are required for chocolate macarons as the cocoa powder will colour it brown.

Fold in 1/3 of the almond/icing sugar/cocoa mixture at a time. Fold gently to avoid flattening the mixture too much.

Once your mixture has combined and flows off the spatula in a ribbon like way & honey like consistency, it is ready to pipe. It should not drop off the spatula.

Place your template under the parchment paper or silpat mat and pipe your macarons. I found that turning my silpat mat upside down made it easier to see my template below.

Rap the tray on the table 3 or 4 times before allowing your macarons to rest for 30 mins & form a skin.

Place the oven shelf on the lowest rung and remove any other shelves. Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Bake the macarons for 12-14 mins depending on their size. Test if they are done by touching the side of one, it should not wobble.

Spring is truly here now & I wanted to show you a fancy dessert for sunny days, a Vegan Meringue Pavlova. Made with the liquid you usually discard from a tin of chickpeas which is whipped up to replace egg whites. There are a few recipes online and a facebook group too and I just love trying new recipes.

Sadly I tried a few times but it just would not whip up enough to hold its shape once piped & cooked. It may have been the gel food colouring I added, I’m not sure. My first batch rose very quickly in the oven & while you could still see the shapes I’d piped from the colours, it did not hold its shape.

Before baking the vegan meringue

I eventually gave in, separated 3 eggs and made a real meringue. I think a pav is best served with berries & cream but by the time I’d decided to just use eggs & was ready to take pics. I’d eaten all the pretty berries! My plan was to pile them all up in the middle.

Meringue

3 egg whites (weigh them)

Caster sugar (double the weight of the egg whites)

1tsp vanilla extract

Gel food colouring

Heat your oven to 180°C

Ensure that your mixer bowl and whisk are clean and grease free as meringue will not whip up if there is any water or grease.

Weigh your egg whites and take note of what they weigh.

Weigh your caster sugar in a heat proof bowl. Caster sugar should be double the weight of the egg whites.

Place your caster sugar in the oven at 180°C for 5 mins.

Prepare your parchment paper. On the wrong side draw a circle with a smaller circle inside so that you know where to start and end piping. Turn the parchment over and place onto a baking tray.

After the sugar has been in the oven for 5 mins start to whip your egg whites, once white and foamy, take the sugar out the oven and slowly add one tablespoon of sugar at a time while the mixer is going.

Turn the oven down to 100°C.

Once all the sugar is added, scrape down the sides and add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Whip for 5 mins and test a little meringue between your fingers, if it still feels grainy whip for another 5 mins. Once it feels smooth I added teal gel food colouring and mixed until evenly distributed.

It’s not quite February yet but I’m seeing Valentine’s Day ideas all over social media. Have you been looking around at ideas yet? To give you some inspiration this week I’ve made Red Velvet Cupcakes which goes with the whole red & white theme of Valentines Day.

My cupcakes didn’t turn out quite red enough in my opinion but they did taste great! I used a very dark cocoa powder so this could be the reason but be warned, this recipe requires a lot of red food colouring.

I decided to decorate the cream cheese icing with rice paper butterflies. You can buy sheets of rice paper from Amazon for around £5 and I used some butterfly punches that I already had at home. I also sprayed the butterflies with an edible pearlised shimmer spray but sadly this didn’t show up so well in the photos.

Red Velvet Cupcakes – Makes 12

60g softened butter

150g caster sugar

1 egg

20g cocoa powder

40ml red food colouring

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarb

1 1/2tsp white vinegar

Turn the oven onto 170°C

Measure out the butter & caster sugar in the mixer bowl and beat on a medium speed until light & fluffy.

Scrape down the sides and add the egg. Beat until well incorporated. Scrape down the sides and mix again.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a very thick, dark paste. Note on the food colouring: I use gel paste food colouring and 40ml of this would have been more than my whole bottle. I squeezed a small dollop into some water to make up 40ml and thought this would have been strong enough. I would recommend using at least half a tsp of gel paste food colouring with water for this recipe as mine was not strong enough.)

Add to the butter and mix until all combined. Scrape down the sides and mix again.

Turn the mixer down to low and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed and then add half the flour and mix again until incorporated. Add the other half of the buttermilk and mix well. Then the remaining flour and mix again until incorporated.

Scrape down the bowl, turn the speed up to high and mix until you have a smooth and even mixture.

Turn the mixer down to slow and add the bicarb and vinegar, beat until well mixed and then turn the mixer up to high again and mix for another 2 mins.

Evenly divide the mixture between 12 paper cases which should be about 2/3 full.

Bake for 20mins until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tray for 5 mins and then remove to a cooling rack.

Cream Cheese Icing

300g icing sugar

50g softened butter

125g cold cream cheese

Sift the icing sugar and add butter. Slowly beat this to prevent a white storm cloud until the mixture comes together.

Add the cream cheese and beat on medium until well incorporated. Scrape down the sides and turn the speed up to high, beat for about 5 mins until light & fluffy. Don’t beat much longer than this as it can become runny.

I chose to pipe my cream cheese icing onto the cupcakes but you could also just spread it with a knife.

I hope you like this recipe and if you give it a try please remember to tag me in your pics #sprinklesinthewild

Cxx

P.S. This recipe is from the Hummingbird bakery Cookbook with a few tweeks to the way I like to do things.

One of the most important decisions to make when baking is what to cover your cake or cupcakes with. While you can do lots of different techniques with sugarpaste, many people don’t enjoy eating it.

I love to work with and eat buttercream but what do you prefer? Swiss Meringue Buttercream or American Buttercream? I grew up eating cake with American buttercream, mostly chocolate in flavour as that is always my Dad’s preference. While I still love chocolate American buttercream, I have learnt the dream, that is Swiss meringue buttercream too. I still make both as sometimes you just need a super sweet American buttercream topped cupcake

Below are both the recipes that I use, the quantities are enough to cover a 3 layer 6″ cake or 18 cupcakes with a bit left over. Below that you will find some flavour combination ideas but the world really is your oyster here.

Start mixing slowly, once combined turn the speed up to medium/high and beat for about 10mins.

Scrape down the side and add your colouring and flavouring if you choose. Mix until combined.

You can make more or less as required just keep the ratio of double icing sugar to butter.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

(You will require a candy thermometer for this)

150g egg whites (room temperature) about 4 large eggs

250g caster sugar

340g softened butter

2tsp vanilla extract

1/4tsp salt

Wipe the mixer bowl and separate heat proof bowl, if required, with lemon juice or vinegar to remove any traces of grease.

Make a double boiler by placing simmering water below but without touching the mixing bowl or another heat proof bowl.

Add egg whites and caster sugar to the bowl, whisking constantly but gently until the temp reaches 60°C or until the sugar has completely dissolved and egg whites are hot.

Attach bowl to mixer or pour into mixer bowl and use the whisk attachment. Whip until the meringue is glossy and the bottom of the bowl no longer feels warm. About 7-10mins.

Switch to a mixer attachment and on a low speed add cubes of butter one at a time until all mixed in. Continue mixing until silky smooth.

Add vanilla and salt and continue mixing until well combined.

Scrape down the side and add your colouring and flavouring if you choose. Mix until combined.

If the buttercream curdles, keep mixing on a low speed and it will become smooth again. If the buttercream is too runny, refrigerate for about 15mins before continuing mixing.

Flavouring

There are a multitude of different flavour extracts that you can buy in tiny bottles. I love bubblegum, coconut, peppermint, lavender and rose water but you can also add additional ingredients to the buttercream for flavour.

I love rainbows, I love bright colours and I LOVE sprinkles! I have been known to be a little over zealous with my use of sprinkles but you know how they end up everywhere? For the next week or so you find 2 or 3 every time you move something in the kitchen…those are sprinkles in the wild!

This is my very first blog post. This is a big leap for me as I’m not very good with words, in fact most of my friends would probably describe me as abrupt. I don’t mean to be like that but thats just me. So wish me good luck and here we go…

I’m originally from Durban, South Africa but currently live in Hamburg, Germany with my hubby, 2 kiddies & 2 dogs.

I’m starting this blog as a portfolio for my baking, I really enjoy custom baking from home but I am currently unable to do so and hope to be able to use this as reference for when I can pick it up again.